Editorial

Dear friends,

Welcome to no less than the thirteenth issue of (y)our magazine. The photo alongside the editorial gives a clue to this issue’s main topic. Not just because peas are, and forever will be, associated with Johann Gregor Mendel and the foundation of genetics, but also because each pea-pod encapsulates hidden new life, and although its shape and size hints at the peas inside, only once popped open will the true form of the individual peas be revealed; Much the way that children are born into the world. Prenatal screening, genetic testing and the course of pregnancy reveal what form the baby will take in some respects, but only when it comes into the world will we be sure. A few years from now we will most likely get even more insights about children as yet unborn (let’s leave aside the ethical question of whether we should want to know). One way or another, children who do not have a good start in life always have, and always will come into the world. These include children with birth defects; those with flaws in the facial area deserve our special attention. Not only because people will probably never cease to judge the world and the people in it by appearances – at least on first impulse – but also because oro-facial morphological anomalies often pose a challenge to feeding and speech development. In addition to having troubles fitting into our world with such an oddity, children and parents often have to contend with speech and food intake difficulties that redouble being the odd-one-out.

Here’s hoping that the articles in this journal issue, devoted to congenital defects of the oro-facial complex, bring a little more understanding, empathy and thus professional and interpersonal help to those who need it. The topic of congenital oro-facial defects will also be addressed in the following episodes of the Řeči o řeči podcasts, which are published monthly on YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

The December issue of LKL will focus on the issue of psychiatric considerations in clinical speech therapy. We are already looking forward to your manuscripts, which you can upload to the online editorial system on our website up until September 14, 2023.

We wish you time well spent reading, listening to podcasts, a sunny summer and a colourful autumn.

On behalf of the whole LKL editorial team,

Zuzana Lebedová

Překlad editorialu do angličtiny: Václav Pinkava